


The Game

by amelia_day



Series: The Panem Nightlocks [3]
Category: Hunger Games Series - All Media Types, Hunger Games Trilogy - Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Explicit Language, Explicit Sexual Content, F/M, Football, Fraternities & Sororities, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Trigger Warnings, Triggers, racial injustice
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-11
Updated: 2021-01-11
Packaged: 2021-03-15 05:47:58
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 908
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28683528
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/amelia_day/pseuds/amelia_day
Summary: Delly Cartwright has always loved fairy-tales, and dreams of her own happy ending. If only her and Thresh Brookes could get on the same page.Part of The Panem Nightlocks Series (The Bet)
Relationships: Annie Cresta/Finnick Odair, Delly Cartwright/Thresh, Gale Hawthorne/Madge Undersee, Katniss Everdeen/Peeta Mellark
Series: The Panem Nightlocks [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1632781
Comments: 14
Kudos: 69





	The Game

* * *

_Loves a game...wanna play?_

_-_ T. Swift 

* * *

“Five, six, seven, eight!” 

Music blared through the small speaker on the sideline of the field as we struck our opening poses. The sound of poms swishing through the air in unison overtook the field and I smiled brightly up at the stands, where an imaginary audience was cheering us on.

While it was true that the fans came for a football game, they _stayed_ for us. Our ability to get the crowd going, have everyone on their feet was a gift. When our signature mix of songs began at half-time, the stadium absolutely vibrated with a roar of cheers. 

The ten year old girl from Seattle, home-schooled and painfully shy for most of her childhood, couldn’t have imagined it. 

My chest rose and fell heavily as the number came to a close and I stood squatted down on the turf hitting my last pose. 

“Better. Still needs a lot of work, but it’s coming along,” Coach commented with arms folded across her torso with a contemplative look.

“It would kill her to just say _good job,”_ Maysilee muttered under her breath, making me laugh. 

“But then we might develop a sense of confidence,” I teased back, making her roll her eyes.

Practice was finished, but my day was still far from over. Classes wouldn’t begin for another week, but tonight was the first _Welcome Back_ mixer at the Theta Kappa Phi house. It was also the night that Cashmere would announce that I would be the new acting Vice President. 

One of the only Sophomore’s to be voted into such a position in all of Theta’s history. It was still hard for me to wrap my mind around. Like a dream. Like finally everything was piecing--

“Incoming!” 

Maysilee gasped, and I spun around, poms dropping from my hands just in time to catch the football hurdling in my direction. I stood in shocked silence for a moment, trying to comprehend what had just happened as a small group of Nightlock’s players jogged closer in retrieval.

“Whoa, sorry,” one of them said, taking the ball back from my extended hand. 

“No harm, no foul,” I smiled, and when he returned it, I felt my heart rate increase. 

No one had the right to be that good looking.

“That was pretty impressive, I have to admit,” he added, and standing there in front of me, I had to practically crane my neck in order to meet his eyeline. _So tall._

“Which part? The fact that you almost hit me square in the face, or that I caught it?”

“Definitely that you caught it,” he humored, tossing the ball back and forth in his hands. “It’d be kind of lame if I wasn’t able to throw a ball.” 

His southern drawl made words like _caught_ and _ball_ sound like there was a ‘w’ added into them. It took me by surprise. There weren’t many southern boys all the way up in Wisconsin. Then again, the same could be said for me. I’d yet to meet another student from Washington so far.

I curtseyed a little, teasingly, because he seemed to be waiting for something. That made him laugh before his teammates started to loudly call him over to mid-field. He ignored them, keeping himself squarely in front of me.

“So...you’re on the dance team?” 

I nodded, and he mimicked the motion.

“Alright then. Guess I’ll be seein’ you around.”

“Guess so,” I confirmed, even as he started to jog away. I bit down on my bottom lip hard to keep from smiling stupidly.

“Are you okay, Dell?” Maysilee asked, placing a hand on my shoulder to spin me in her direction. 

“Who was that?” I asked.

“Who cares? He almost gave you a black eye! Can you imagine the amount of cover up it would take to fix that?” 

“But he didn’t, and that is because I am _impressive.”_

“Please,” she said with a roll of her eyes. 

“I’m sorry, did you _hear_ that accent? Hubba hubba.”

“I wouldn’t have pegged him for being your type,” she said, swishing her hair back and forth over her shoulders.

“No?” 

What was there to possibly not like? His charming smile and the way his perfectly straight teeth were so white they almost glowed? The way his eyes crinkled when he laughed at my lame joke? It went without saying his tall frame and bulging muscles were drool worthy. He filled out his sweats nicely, highlighting the curve of his ass perfectly. When he lifted his shirt up to wipe sweat from his brow, revealing a toned stomach, I almost fainted.

“It’s just that you’re so bright and bubbly and Thresh is...so not.”

“Thresh?” So he had a name. 

“I know that face,” she accused, handing over my discarded poms as we began to make our way off field.

“What?” I asked with feigned innocence.

“You don’t even know him.” 

Of course Maysliee was right, I didn’t know him. And I had a terrible habit of getting ten steps ahead of myself in most situations. My mother called it the _Disney complex._ I dreamed of fairytale endings and happily ever afters. 

But when I looked over my shoulder, tucking back my unruly curls to afford me one last look at him, I saw his eyes were still fixated on me, also.

So really, could a girl even be blamed for being a hopeless romantic?

**Author's Note:**

> I swear, originally I only planned on writing stories for the main three couples (Katniss/Peeta, Madge/Gale & Finnick/Annie) but how could I leave Delly and Thresh out? I hope you all enjoyed! This story will be different in that it will likely be told through a series of cohesive drabbles and one-shots leading up to where they are by the end of The Bet. 
> 
> Chances are, if you're reading this it's only because you've read The Bet and/or The Challenge. If not, it would be beneficial to at least read The Bet first! 
> 
> Thank you all for reading! If you're on tumblr, I am awhiskeyriver!


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